The more time students spent in remote instruction, the further they fell behind. And, experts say, extended closures did little to stop the spread of Covid.
There have been 6,880,585 hospitalizations and 1,184,376 deaths from covid according to CDC numbers. Anyone arguing that closures and vaccines were unnecessary is a fool.
Source: covid.cdc.gov
@#8 ... "And, experts say, extended closures did little to stop the spread of Covid."
So the complaint here is folks didn't have a crystal ball, and they were making 2020 decisions based on what they knew in 2020?!? ...
Bingo!
Back in 2020, we knew little about this new enemy that was coming onshore and attacking the United States.
So, standard preventive measures were taken.
Once we knew it was airborne-spread, schools were allowed to open, but they needed to upgrade (in some cases, significantly) their ventilation systems.
With fmr Pres Trump making COVID more about divisive politics than medically slowing the virus' spread, we are now faced with a situation like...
COVID backlash could leave the U.S. less ready for the next pandemic
www.axios.com
... our years after COVID-19 emerged, the U.S. in many ways is far less ready for the next major viral threat, despite the pandemic era's significant scientific advances.
Why it matters: Key weaknesses in the country's COVID response have only become more glaring, including the politicization of public health, an understaffed health care workforce and a growing hostility to science.
The big picture: Experts say it's a matter of when, not if, the world will face another pandemic, and the next one could make the last look mild. ...
Tangentially related...
Health experts plead for unvaxxed Americans to get measles shot as cases rise
arstechnica.com
... The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Medical Association sent out separate but similar pleas on Monday for unvaccinated Americans to get vaccinated against the extremely contagious measles virus as vaccination rates have slipped, cases are rising globally and nationally, and the spring-break travel period is beginning.
In the first 12 weeks of 2024, US measles cases have already matched and likely exceeded the case total for all of 2023. According to the CDC, there were 58 measles cases reported from 17 states as of March 14. But media tallies indicate there have been more cases since then, with at least 60 cases now in total, according to CBS News. In 2023, there were 58 cases in 20 states.
"As evident from the confirmed measles cases reported in 17 states so far this year, when individuals are not immunized as a matter of personal preference or misinformation, they put themselves and others at risk of disease -- including children too young to be vaccinated, cancer patients, and other immunocompromised people," AMA President Jesse Ehrenfeld said in a statement urging vaccination Monday.
The latest data indicates that vaccination rates among US kindergarteners have slipped to 93 percent nationally, below the 95 percent target to prevent the spread of the disease. And vaccine exemptions for non-medical reasons have reached an all-time high. ...
"One side good...the other side bad."
Yeah that's the problem with peoples approach to the problem. Both sides are bad.
The real problem that the complainers still can't come to grips with is this:
Sometimes there really aren't good choices.
Sometimes your only choice is between two evils.
We had to choose between the evil of more death, vs. the evil of kids not receiving as good an education.
Those are both bad.
But only Republicans like Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick tried to spin teachers dying from COVID as good for the students:
"No one reached out to me and said, 'As a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that America loves for its children and grandchildren?' And if that is the exchange, I'm all in," Patrick said.
www.nbcnews.com
The article spends very little time on the impact of school closures on the spread of covid before concluding that "experts say" it did not have a "significant" impact. I don't think the data is unanimous on that point. Here are some studies the article appears to ignore.
Overall, school closure effectively suppresses COVID-19 related syndromes in students owing to the reduction of physical contact. In addition, school closure has a spillover effect on elderly people who stay at home.Bottom line, you can find data to support either side of this argument, and the number of deaths you deem to be "significant" enough to be worth preventing as compared to apparent learning loss is your own personal judgment to make.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Countries that implement [school] closure have fewer new COVID-19 cases than those that do not.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Between March 9, 2020, and May 7, 2020, school closure in the US was temporally associated with decreased COVID-19 incidence and mortality; states that closed schools earlier, when cumulative incidence of COVID-19 was low, had the largest relative reduction in incidence and mortality.
jamanetwork.com
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